


Three Visits Over Time

by Mary_West



Category: Corpse Bride (2005)
Genre: Death, F/F, F/M, Lord Barkis (Mention), Mention of all parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21804520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mary_West/pseuds/Mary_West
Summary: Each year, on her wedding anniversary, Victoria sits in her bedroom and hopes that Victor will visit from the Underworld. And some years he does. She just hopes he's happy.
Relationships: Emily/Victoria Everglot, Victor Van Dort/Emily, Victor Van Dort/Emily/Victoria Everglot, Victor Van Dort/Victoria Everglot
Comments: 30
Kudos: 159
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Three Visits Over Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Age or Wizardry (ageorwizardry)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ageorwizardry/gifts).



_With this hand I will lift your sorrows._

Victoria, Lady Bittern, sighed and reached out to the old mirror, but what was the use? It would take a week to remove all the dust and grime from the polished surface, and it would just smudge up again. She picked at a loose thread in her cuff, then gasped at a subtle blue light behind her.

"You're still beautiful, you know."

"Hello Victor." She didn't turn around, but he sat in a chair beside her and they looked at each other's reflections. "I thought you'd come tonight."

"It would have been our wedding anniversary."

"It's still mine."

"And mine. Just not ours." He, too, sighed; the breath whistling out of the sword cut in his chest, the cut that had actually killed him in the church when her husband, Lord Barkis Bittern, had fought Victor and won. She had kissed Victor goodbye as he was lifted up by the ghosts around them, then watched dry-eyed as he finally married Emily and returned to the underworld. And then she had walked back to her parents' house, unheeding of her new husband's bitter complaints about being fooled out of the fortune. They indeed had disappointment in common.

"How is Emily?"

"As well as can be expected, for a corpse. She sends her love."

"That's sweet of her."

There was a pause, a hush, punctuated only by the starlings in the ceiling and the whistle of the winter wind outside, that lifted the last lonely autumn leaves and whisked them along the old packhorse bridge and back into the forest. One lonely draught crept around the curtains and stirred the cobwebs that hung around the room, catching Victor's eye.

"It's looking rather dismal here."

"It was dismal when you left, and we haven't had any money to fix anything."

"Oh."

Once more a silence. Victoria could have stayed there, just enjoying his company silently, for as long as forever, but Victor obviously had issues with the pause.

"How are your parents?"

"Father died of the influenza not long after I married. Mother couldn't afford a doctor, and by the time your parents offered to pay, it was too late." Victoria sighed. "So Mother left to live with Aunt Dorothy, over at Oakenfeld. She says there's nothing to come back for."

"That's a bit harsh. I'm sorry to hear about your father." He wouldn't look her in the face, only in the mirror. "But I'm glad my parents helped. Are they …?"

"They're alive. Still working. But your mother misses you very much."

"I should visit them." Victor picked up one of Victoria's hair pins that lay on the dressing table, and twisted it about until it made a heart shape. "But not tonight."

"No. Not tonight. They'll be thinking about you now. It would break their hearts to see you now too."

"Oh."

Victoria almost smiled. He was still awkward, still said the wrong things, but it seemed that at least he missed her.

In the distance, the town clock struck midnight.

"I should go."

"It was nice talking to you, Victor. Give my love back to Emily. Will I see you next year?"

"I'll try."

"Do."

She watched as he faded away, like a candle burning lower and lower until you realise it has actually been out for some time and it was just the afterglow your eyes were seeing. Then she shook her head and went to bed. The warped floorboards under it creaked in sympathy with her heart.

_Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine._

"Victoria! I'm sorry I couldn't…" Victor came into her bedroom again, sitting once more on the old seat beside her own stool. "I meant to, last year, and the year before, and …"

"It's all right. I don't mind."

"Your mother would, if she knew I was here." This made them both laugh, and Victor continued. "Emily has been working on a new piece. Did I tell you we have a musical society now?"

"I didn't know." She looked as he flexed his fingers, which were starting to look rather bony. "What sort of things do you play?"

"Well, I'm still into the Classical, almost Baroque, but Bonejangles has been teaching me jazz." He still wouldn't look straight at her, as if to do so was too confronting. "Something called _ragtime_. I rather like it."

"I should like to hear some one day." Victoria looked up brightly. "I don't hear music very much. But the old piano is still downstairs. You could always come and play here if you wanted to."

"Could I?"

"Emily too. Is she very talented?"

"That was one of the things that brought us together. If I had had a chance…"

"The past is the past, Victor. I wish things had been different too, but we must go on as things are now. " She looked at an old vase on her dressing table, which held a bouquet of dried roses and long-perished lilies.

"I meant to ask. Do you hear from your mother at all? Or my parents?"

"Mother stays away. I think the hate in her heart has kept her there." Victoria sighed. "I know she wasn't much of a mother, but I do miss her. And your parents sold the fish business to Mayhew's brother, but they're still in the old house. I should go and see them next week."

A fine grey rain splattered against the window, where threadbare curtains did nothing to keep out the cold. Over the gentle sound, the bells of the town clock started their long peal.

"Say hello from me, would you?"

"And say hello to Emily for me. Goodnight, Victor."

He faded, and she watched as the light from his presence mingled with the dim light from the lamp outside.

_With this candle, I will light your way in darkness._

An early snow had settled on the windowsill, and was seeping in where the panes had broken. Victoria sat once more at her mirror, and watched as the moon outside was slowly eclipsed by the growing light to the side of her bedroom. She could hear a gentle tone downstairs, that of a piano being played softly, and although many of the notes were out of tune, it still tugged at her heart. It was the melody Victor had played the day they met. They had seen each other around town of course, as they grew up, but her parents had kept her right away from the town children, and it had only been the occasional glimpse. And then he had walked into her parents' house and everything had changed.

The light grew stronger, and coalesced into a shape she knew well.

"Emily!"

"Hello, Victoria."

"Why isn't Victor here?"

"He was too embarrassed." Emily laughed; her ribs visible through the tear in her dress. "Ten years! Those visits! Were you going to tell him?"

Victoria shook her head. "I didn't want to spoil things."

"Spoil?"

"Come between the two of you. Victor is your husband, and while I value his friendship, I cannot ask for anything more." She worried once more at the loose thread on her cuff, the fabric now faded and speckled with mildew. "But how did you find out?"

"Your husband told us."

"Lord Barkis?"

"It seems," Emily said, settling herself in the chair beside Victoria and gently turning the other woman's head so that they could look eye to eye, "that he finally chose the wrong wife. He married twice more after you, did you know? Killed each one, took off with the fortune. But young Henrietta was a match for him. When he tried to push her out the window of their bedroom at the top of her parents' castle, she spun him around and sent him flying. Made quite a mess of the flagstones in the courtyard. He arrived downstairs yesterday, and after a little persuading, he told us everything."

She paused then cupped the other woman's face in her hand. "Including that he broke your neck and hid your body under the floorboards in your bedroom the night of your wedding, then claimed you had run off in despair at Victor's death."

Victoria looked towards the bed that sat uneasily on the warped floorboards, under which her body had lain the last ten years. "My parents shut the room up in disgust, and disowned me on the spot." She shook her arm, and the fabric started drifting apart, the aged wool perished and tainted by the corpse fluids that had soaked into it. "Then Father died. And Mother never knew."

From downstairs, the music surged into a _Magnificat_ that wrapped itself around her heart and filled it with love. Despite her ten years of death, Victoria felt more alive than she had done ever before.

Except once. Ten long years ago.

And the feeling was _wonderful._ She straightened up her shoulders and smiled at Emily. It wasn't a nice smile.

"What has happened to Barkis?"

"We can do things to a dead person to make them wish they had never died. Would you like to find out?"

"Oh." Victoria turned back to the mirror, seeing there her skin slowly flaking and shedding. "But would that be fair to you?"

"You don't understand." Emily leaned forward and kissed Victoria lightly on the lips. "We _both_ want you down there. There's more than enough room for three of us, and Victor cares for you very much. As do I."

Emily stood and held out her hands, and Victoria took them and drifted down, down, so far down, collecting Victor on the way.

_With this ring I ask you to be mine._

**Author's Note:**

> I was looking for a way to get to the threesome my giftee was hoping for, then realised the story of how they got there was the one that wanted to be told. I hope this meets your requirements. A Glorious Yuletide to you and all.
> 
> (Many thanks to my wonderful Beta, [Bramblethorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bramblethorn), who came up with some excellent concepts which pulled the whole thing together.)


End file.
